Airlines - experiences?

[bust]

On 11/22/2024 at 11:54 PM, think_too_mut said:

QANTAS VH-OJA, Boeing 747. Retired, 2017 at the Wollongong airport museum. Open for visitors.
 

IMG_1390.HEICUnavailable IMG_1396.HEICUnavailable

It's actually at Albion Park south of Wollongong. Also has a great dog track 🐶

[think_too_mut]

4 hours ago, bust said:

It's actually at Albion Park south of Wollongong. Also has a great dog track 🐶

True, that is where the decomissioned machine is. Short runway, 80km from Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, only 25 tons of fuel used to fly and park her there.
VH-OJA B747, took me from Sydney to Los Angeles 2 or 3 times. Even have a model at my desk, exactly VH-OJA.

The thrid picture, even the custos of the museum did not know what that unusual fitting is for. Myself, a former airplane mechanic and a fan of civil aviation, explained to him, it is to fit a 5th engine to deliver to a place where no spare engines are available (like Fiji). People like me before University, were and are doing that.
If the readers of this post can undersand that.
 

[Titanic]

Qatar Q business class last year LON-BKK. Broken seat, one toilet out of order, first time ever no special meal supplied, even though booked months before. Also, they cancelled paid for reserved seat, no refund even though they said they would. Waiting on boarding bridge in the heat for 35 minutes along side all the kiddies at the front and nearly dead Arabs in wheelchairs, never again.

[Old Hippie]

[bust]

The Top 10 Safest Airlines For 2024

 

1. Air New Zealand
2. Qantas
3. Virgin Australia
4. Etihad Airways
5. Qatar Airways
6. Emirates
7. All Nippon Airways
8. Finnair
9. Cathay Pacific Airways
10. Alaska Airlines

[Perv]

This list appears to be taken from a story of the top 25 airlines in the world from Forbes.

Link

#20 is Japan Airlines, which was involved in an accident in very early 2024 in Haneda in which 5 people lost their lives and 18 injured. The story I linked even references that accident. Hard to believe a list that includes a disaster that killed five people and think that they would be safer than others.

[Coss]

As a very infrequent consumer of airline services, I'm about to embark on the following giant tin budgies: China Airlines, Scoot, Lao Airlines, Qantas.

Should any aspect of these, be worthy of comment, I'll report. Otherwise, it's just seats that are slightly too small and other travellers who, though adult, are begging to be admonished for poor behaviour.

 

[bust]

5 hours ago, Perv said:

This list appears to be taken from a story of the top 25 airlines in the world from Forbes.

Link

Correct.....however edited for OH. He's big on equality 🌈

[Coss]

- an overdue rant:

I booked a trip with 5 flights Akl - Mel - Sin - Bkk (train to Laos) Vte - Mel - Akl.

Of the seven flights I ended up with,  not one, did what it said on the can.

1. Akl - Mel - Online check in - great - but it didn't work. I know this because at the gate, each online checkin victim, was called to the gate and issued a paper boarding pass there. The flight on China Airlines (Taiwan) was unremarkable excepting seats for anorexics, not real people with shoulders.

2. Mel - Sin - Delayed 3 hrs, fair enough, this happens. But at the gate, delayed 1 hr more. Then 1 hr more. The passengers were ready to lynch anyone that got in their way, me too at 1 am.

3. Sin - Bkk - gone already, see 2 above. Connecting passengers left to wander airport to find new connecting flights, somewhere not on display boards. Eventually snack vendor pointed to the right place.

4. Bkk - Vte - Little turbo prop budgie and pleasant experience, though I do have to wonder why with any empty airport, they parked th plane as far from th terminal and customs/immigration as possible, so we walked for 15 minutes in the noonday sun. Added to this, MLG waiting in arrivals, was engrossed in her phone and didn't see me come through, so I waited for 15 minutes next to her, until she noticed me, nearly divorced her on the spot.

5. Vte - Bkk - Delayed 1 hr, Ok these things happen. On arrival me and 3 others were guided through Bkk airport, at a fast trot, to make the next flight. Note to airlines, not everyone is 22 yrs old. Some of us could have a heart attack and die, on an enforced 2km fast trot. I nearly did. Think of the publicity.

6. Bkk - Mel - also late but not seriously so. This one has only, the tiny seats to complain about and the unnotified lack of food unless you pay. Jet Star, of course.

7. Mel - Akl -  also late but not seriously so. This one has only, the tiny seats to complain about. Quantas this time.

 

Just once I'd like to go to the airport, get on the plane at the appointed time and arrive at the time they said it would, with no other indignities.

 

[Coss]

Oh and Scoot  - never again.

Scoot's airline slogan is Escape the Ordinary.